I recently purchased a Canon Rebel XTi. It is a 'entry' level Digital SLR camera. How the hell something can cost more than $500 and be considered entry level is beyond me. Overall I love the camera. The lense that came with it isn't the greatest but it gets the job done.
We just took a trip to Padre where we snapped off close to 500 pictures. The greatest thing about this type of camera versus normal point & shoot digital cameras is that this thing really is point and shoot. You point it and start pushing the button and it will take the pictures as fast as you push the button. Actually, you can hold your finger down and it will take 3 pictures a second. The result of this is that you blow through pictures like there is no tomorrow.
Another cool thing is that the 2gig card I got with the camera holds about four hundred 10 megapixel images in JPEG format. Kicking it over to RAW mode reduces it to about two hundred. Anyway you look at it though that is a lot of picture taking. I'm going to get a pair of 4gig cards from Amazon. Between the three cards I ought to have enough room for a few days of picture taking. which also reminds me: the battery life is excellent. I didn't take the charger on the trip. We snapped pictures all weekend and there are still 3 bars. So I doubt I'll bother with a second battery.
As you can tell; I really like this camera. Keep it on its preprogrammed settings and it is just a point and shoot camera on steroids. You'll be really happy with it. My only recommendation is get a zoom lense. The lense that comes with the camera is OK if you want to take a picture of your kids standing five feet away.
One of the expenses I incurred buying the camera is that I upgraded my flickr account to the pro level. I did this because I'm constantly on the verge of uploading my limit and I can organize my stuff in to sets and collections now. I think it is worth it for the $20/year charge. But the really cool feature is one that is available all the time - you can order poster size prints (20"x30") of your pictures.
I ordered a poster of this picture:
It arrived while we were gone. My youngest is really excited about it and I'm really pleased with the results. Tonight I'm going to get a frame for it and get it hung up on her wall. The dog's name is "Hawk" and technically he is hers. Great dog with a wonderful personality. Now he also makes great posters.
I ordered the poster as a test. I wanted to see what Flickr (or whoever they send the stuff to) could actually do. One cool feature is that they can route normal size stuff to your local Target store so you can just drive over and pick it up. I might use that some, but I have a photo printer that should work for most stuff, but the big deal to me is being able to make 20X30 posters. I have some ideas for it.
In August we are going to go watch the AMA at the Mid-Ohio race track. After the races I'm attending California Superbike school for two days (why not call it Ohio Superbike school?). By the time we go I plan to have my zoom lense. What I really want is to capture a picture like this:
Not sure that my skills will be up to it, but I'm pretty sure the camera is. I also have a tripod to help out.
Once I have a decent picture I want to turn it into a poster for my office. I have a wall where it will look really good.